A manatee cruises in a canal connecting the Mosquito Bay and Mosquito Lagoon in Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, Florida.
~ janson
No pics, theyere hanging in a big cenote that connects to the sea and provides a flush of cool fresh sea water into the shallow lagoon. You could see their snouts when they came up to breath and occasionlly a flip of the tail at the surface when thy descended again. turbulent water and regulated distance limited th observation, but thi was the first time we'd ever seen them, so it was very interesting.
Manatees (family Trichechidae, genus Trichechus) are large, fully aquatic marine mammals sometimes known as sea cows. They are noted for their rather friendly nature, large size (up to 4 metres) and paddle-like flippers. The name manatàcomes from the TaÃÂno, a pre-Columbian people of the Caribbean, meaning "breast". They contain three of the four living species in the order Sirenia, the other being the dugong, which is native to the Eastern Hemisphere. The Sirenia are thought...
